Quantitative Testing of fMRI-Compatibility of an Electrically Active Mechatronic Device for Robot-Assisted Sensorimotor Protocols
Quantitative Testing of fMRI-Compatibility of an Electrically Active Mechatronic Device for Robot-Assisted Sensorimotor Protocols
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DOI：
10.1109/tbme.2017.2741346
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发表时间：
2018-07-01
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Sergi, Fabrizio
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Farrens, Andria J.;Zonnino, Andrea;Sergi, Fabrizio
目的：建立一套定量的方法来测试功能磁共振成像(FMRI)期间支持感觉运动方案的电活动机电设备的兼容性。方法：这套方法包括体模和活体实验，以测量设备可能引入的越来越广泛的噪声源的影响。体模实验测量了该装置引入的射频(RF)噪声和时间噪声信噪比(TNSR)。活体实验评估了该设备对执行典型感觉运动任务的受试者测量的大脑激活的影响。建议的协议通过使用3T磁共振扫描仪在额定条件下操作并包括电激活的机电设备-MR-SoftWrist-作为被测设备(EUT)的实验来验证。结果：通过对射频噪声数据的定量分析，可以在受控射频噪声条件下以及类似于EUT电信号不正确过滤的条件下检测到有源射频噪声源。在没有检测到射频噪声的情况下，EUT的存在和运行不会引起tNSR的任何显著增加。对视觉和运动区活跃体素数量的活体测量进行的定量分析进一步表明，EUT和基线条件之间没有显著差异。结论和意义：提出的一套定量方法支持电动机电设备的开发和故障排除，用于fMRI的感觉运动方案，并可用于未来对此类设备的测试。
Objective: To develop a quantitative set of methods for testing the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) compatibility of an electrically-active mechatronic device developed to support sensorimotor protocols during fMRI. Methods: The set of methods includes phantom and in vivo experiments to measure the effect of a progressively broader set of noise sources potentially introduced by the device. Phantom experiments measure the radio-frequency (RF) noise and temporal noise-to-signal ratio (tNSR) introduced by the device. The in vivo experiment assesses the effect of the device on measured brain activation for a human subject performing a representative sensorimotor task. The proposed protocol was validated via experiments using a 3T MRI scanner operated under nominal conditions and with the inclusion of an electrically-active mechatronic device - the MR-SoftWrist - as the equipment under test (EUT). Results: Quantitative analysis of RF noise data allows detection of active RF noise sources both in controlled RF noise conditions, and in conditions resembling improper filtering of the EUT's electrical signals. In conditions where no RF noise was detectable, the presence and operation of the EUT did not introduce any significant increase in tNSR. A quantitative analysis conducted on in vivo measurements of the number of active voxels in visual and motor areas further showed no significant difference between EUT and baseline conditions. Conclusion and significance: The proposed set of quantitative methods supports the development and troubleshooting of electrically-active mechatronic devices for use in sensorimotor protocols with fMRI, and may be used for future testing of such devices.